Last week, Big Lake had its annual joint community meeting, where representatives from Big Lake City, Big Lake Schools, Big Lake Twp., Orrock Twp., and Sherburne County met to touch base on the past year for the benefit of the other groups. This year, the meeting was hosted by the school district in the Liberty Elementary School cafeteria.
Sherburne County
Assistant County Administrator Dan Weber gave an update on the county’s pandemic response.
The county was awarded $7.6 million in CARES funding, part of which was used to improve the process for getting a driver’s license. There is now an appointment system, where citizens can sign up for an appointment slot, rather than wait in line. The waiting area was also made larger, and a new full time position was added. These changes were especially important since many citizens will be needing to update to REAL ID in order to travel in the near future.
Some CARES funding was also distributed to businesses, schools, nonprofits in the community.
There are four vaccination clinics set up at the Sherburne County government center in Elk River. However, the county had only been given 600 doses of the vaccine at the time of the meeting. Unfortunately, there is no way to know how many vaccinations the county will receive from the state until they are received. They are looking into the possibility of opening more clinics in a larger location, possibly the convention center in St. Cloud.
Weber also encouraged everyone to take the broadband speed test offered by the Minnesota Rural Broadband Coalition. For more information on the coalition and the speed test, see the article on page 3.
Big Lake Township
Supervisor Dean Brenteson gave an update on Big Lake Twp.
In 2020, residents made just over $900 million in taxable income. The tax levy was set at $2,228,000. Most of those taxes will be used to maintain the more than 80 miles of township roads.
Three new housing developments came to the township last year.
The township allotted nearly $600,000 of CARES funding to local businesses, nonprofits, and schools, and used some of the funds to update town hall to allow for virtual meetings to be held.
Orrock Township
Supervisor Paul Ellinger gave a report on the year for Orrock Twp.
Firstly, he congratulated Chris Weber on her work as the new town clerk. She had been previously serving as the deputy clerk for Orrock, and ran unopposed to become the head clerk in 2021. Brenda Kimberly-Maas, the former clerk, stepped down to become the deputy clerk. Kimberly-Maas also serves as the clerk for Big Lake Twp.
Ellinger went on to let the audience know that Orrock had an agreement with a developer to bring 86 homes to the Shores of Eagle Lake Development over the next five years.
Orrock also got an update to their town hall, in order to accommodate those who could not attend in person. Ellinger also stated that the Orrock elections took place at the snowmobile trail shed, since the town hall was too small of an accommodation.
Big Lake Schools
Tim Truebenbach gave the report for the Big Lake School District, starting with an introduction of himself. Truebenbach started his position as the district’s superintendent last summer. He said that he decided to move to Big Lake after serving as the superintendent for the Milaca School District because he saw a lot of potential for district growth in Big Lake.
Truebenbach said since he started his position, he has been forced to play defense against the COVID-19 pandemic, but still has managed to do some good things.
Communication between the school and the community has increased through a new communications plan.
The district was able to implement Big Lake Online, an online option for students both in and outside of the district. Big Lake Online is in the process of becoming an official online school. Truebenbach also hopes to use Big Lake Online to offer an apprenticeship program to high school students, so students can learn a trade during the day and keep up with their studies online.
The grants the school received from the county, city, and townships were used to fund Big Lake Online and for childcare costs.
Truebenbach was happy to report that elementary school students were back to attending in-person, and secondary students were once again attending in a hybrid model (spending two days per week in person, three at home.) The school is trying to find ways to bring all the students back to attend in-person.
The schools continue to implement project Lead-the-Way, which introduces STEM topics to elementary students. A STEM open house from last year was very successful, with 750 people attending. After the pandemic hit, more STEM days were offered to students at home, instead.
Big Lake City
Clay Wilfahrt, city administrator, gave the report for the city.
Two thirds of the CARES funding the city received was passed on to local businesses, nonprofits, and the schools.
Wilfahrt stated that there was a greater severity to the calls received by the police department. Liquor sales were up at the city-owned liquor store. Both of these are believed to be caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The city issued 44 new single family housing permits in 2020, which is less than in previous years. Several new banks came into the city, as well as the new Car Condos facility (a community garage area for car collectors.) New senior housing will be coming in the near future, as will a Nystrom in-patient facility. There are also new apartment complexes in the works, including the new apartments at Station Street.
The city’s wastewater treatment plant built a new oxidation ditch, which the city paid for in cash. Wilfahrt noted that this is part of a new strategy on the city’s part: Rather than pay for a lot of facility changes all at once using a loan, the city hopes to make small changes over the years and pay cash for each one.
In 2021, the city hopes to tackle some street improvement projects that were put off due to the uncertainty of 2020. The city is continuing to do a study on area traffic in order to receive grants to build a new bridge over the Mississippi.
